How to tie The Reaper Midge
Are you a tailwater junkie? Do you enjoy fishing for big midge fed trout during cold winter months while the fair weather fishers are warm at home tying flies? If so, you need some Reaper Midges in your fly box. This pattern created by Josh Williams of Dead Drift Outfitters has become a staple in my midge dry box. It is simple to tie and offers some versatility in how it is fished. The flash abdomen and wing are not only eye-catching to fishers but also the fish. The build on this fly with a traditional palmered hackle allows you to either cure it heavily with floatant to keep it riding high or if need be you can go light on the floatant and allow it to dip just under the surface film as an emerging midge. Either way, this pattern fishes great when midges are on the move.
Ingredients & Recipe
- Hook – Firehole 315 16-22
- Thread – Veevus 16/0 Black
- Abdomen – MFC Midge Body Thread Purple
- Wing – Pearl Krystal Flash Ultra Violet
- Hackle- Grizzly
- Dubbing – Ice Dub Silver Holographic
Tools Used
- Vise – Peak Rotary Vice
- Scissors – Loon Ergo Hair Scissors
- Bobbin – Loon Ergo Bobbin
- Whip Finish – Loon Ergo Whip finish
This is definitely a good looking midge dry fly/emerger pattern. I am not familiar with the MFC Midge Body Thread product. What do you think about any of these substitutions? 1) Spanflex, 2) Sulky Holoshimmer Metallic Thread, or 3) Hends Body Quill. I have each of those in a purple or violet color.
Give it a shot. I think the Hends Body Quill looks to be cloestest to the MFC body Thread but fly tying is about experimenting and trying new things!
It turns out I didn’t have the Hends Body Quill in purple so, given my desired hook sizes of 18 and 20, I ended up using the Sulky Metallic Thread. I think it looks very good. It has a little bit of width for wrapping and also some good holographic reflectivity, but probably not as much texture as the preferred material. The Spanflex is just too wide and too thick for these small hook sizes. It would probably work okay for larger hooks. It has some of the desired texture but not much reflectivity.